I believe that Prof. James A. Shapiro sums up the main theme of this book best in the following statement:“The past […] decades of research in genetics and molecular biology have brought us revolutionary discoveries. Upsetting the oversimplified views of cellular organization and function held at mid-century, the molecular revolution has revealed an unanticipated realm of complexity and interaction more consistent with computer technology than with the mechanical viewpoint which dominated the field when the neo-Darwinian Modern Synthesis was formulated. The conceptual changes in biology are comparable in magnitude to the transition from classical physics to relativistic and quantum physics”.
(The Boston Review Feb/March 1997 ‘A Third Way’).‘The Darwin Delusion: But Old Mr. Darwin wasn’t to Blame’, is as the subtitle suggests, not an attack on Darwin, just a tongue-in-cheek, and yes, justifiably critical assessment of the entire Neo-Darwinian synthesis (what I refer to as the genetic modification of Darwin’s original theory).My aim is to present these rather revolutionary alternatives to Darwinian evolution in an easy-to-understand way so, that people like you and me should be able to get the revolutionary significance of all this exciting new evolutionary thinking. Furthermore, it is also important, I believe, to place these new and not so new insights into evolutionary biology within an historical framework. This is to show how, interestingly, it is the most heavily-suppressed alternatives to the Neo-Darwinian doctrine, as the historical record more than adequately demonstrates, that are actually being verified (in principal and in many cases, literally) in labs today, whereas: Darwinian Theory of Evolution even in its most up-dated form, is NOT.

I hope you enjoy this book and come away with a much clearer idea of what is going on in this new revolution in evolution. Furthermore, I do hope that you don’t get too disgruntled (as I did at first) when you realize how the behavior of the staunchest Darwinists have, (in my now better educated opinion), inhibited true scientific investigation because of their own doctrinal belief in non-belief became as rigid and dogmatic as the doctrine they were supposed to distance themselves from in the first place.

For instance, Shapiro suggests that ‘A Third Way’ going back to his title for his article in the Boston Review above, can be found that does not pull us between the polarized and firmly entrenched positions of either extreme: an atheistic zealous doctrine on the one hand and, Ultra Creationism on the other. I am with Shapiro on this, and therefore, another important objective I had in writing this book and series is to begin to steer a course through the quagmire of ideologies which have unfortunately become thoroughly entangled with the natural sciences.

I believe we all should be allowed to follow the evidence and bring evolutionary biology back to where it belongs: into the lab, where it can be empirically tested without prejudice and pre-conceptions. I would also like us to begin to have an open and healthy debate without fear of ridicule! I hope this book will help as a conversation starter. I truly hope you enjoy what I have discovered thus far.
Maria Brigit (PhD researcher and free-lance archaeologist, mother and human being trying to make sense of this mad world we find ourselves in).